While exploring the Internet earlier this week, I came upon this fascinating story featured on Mental Floss. Written by Brooke Jarvis, How One Woman’s Discovery Shook the Foundations of Geology, tells the story of how Marie Tharp produced an incredibly detailed map of part of the world that had never before been seen.

She was working in the 1950s at Columbia University charting the ocean floor. The creation of sonar had suddenly enabled ships to “sound out” the precise depths of the ocean and from the readings; maps could be drawn up for the first time ever. Because it was considered bad luck to have a woman at sea, Tharp wasn’t allowed on the research trips, instead staying back at the university and translating the data as it came in.

“Tharp spent weeks creating a series of six parallel profiles of the Atlantic floor stretching from east to west. Her drawings showed—for the first time—exactly where the continental shelf began to rise out of the abyssal plain and where a large mountain range jutted from the ocean floor. That range had been a shock when it was discovered in the 1870s by an expedition testing routes for transatlantic telegraph cables, and it had remained the subject of speculation since; Tharp’s charting revealed its length and detail.

Her maps also showed something else—something no one expected. Repeating in each was “a deep notch near the crest of the ridge,” a V-shaped gap that seemed to run the entire length of the mountain range. Tharp stared at it. It had to be a mistake.

She crunched and re-crunched the numbers for weeks on end, double- and triple-checking her data. As she did, she became more convinced that the impossible was true: She was looking at evidence of a rift valley, a place where magma emerged from inside the earth, forming new crust and thrusting the land apart. If her calculations were right, the geosciences would never be the same.”

Her discovery was thought to be a mistake and she was told to redo the map, but after starting over and going through the whole process again, the results were the same. She had discovered a rift in the earth’s crust and would change the way that scientist’s looked at the earth forever!

I have dreams about exploring the basements and storerooms of museums and universities.

No, I don't have some weird obsession with dark, dusty rooms, the basements of these historic meccas are packed full of artifacts that are often still in the crates they were packaged in when they were unearthed from the ground! There are so many things that have not yet been studied, or even discovered, and they are sitting, waiting for someone to find them, beneath the shiny display cabinets and perfectly placed lighting that grace the floors above them.

Proof that we still have an opportunity to rediscover our discoveries came from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology just recently. According to Archaeology Magazine, researchers there finally identified the origin of a 6,500 year old skeleton that had been sitting in their storeroom for decades.

Documentation relating to the skeleton had long disappeared and without the context of where it came from, it was difficult to really study the remains. As part of a project to digitize old documents, the researchers came across Sir Leonard Woolley's notebooks (between 1922 and 1934, he excavated the Sumerian site of Ur in southern Iraq), and were able to connect the unidentified skeleton to this excavation due to the way it had been preserved!

A complete skeleton that old is extremely rare, and with the new technologies that researchers have at their fingertips, the Penn Museum is optimistic that this new knowledge will help provide new information about the little-known culture that existed at Ur.

I have to admit, the last tourist site that I was interested in visiting when I was in Edinburgh, was the former Royal Yacht Britannia. It was well off the beaten path, and as far as I knew was just a boat. What was the big deal?

Well, my travel companions convinced me to make the trip to its permanent mooring at Ocean Terminal in Leith, and I am really glad that they did, because it is a piece of royal history that is actually pretty darn cool.

Now, it is no Buckingham Palace, but what makes the Britannia so interesting is that it served as the Royal family's floating home during foreign travels from its launch in 1953 until it was decommissioned in 1997. It was one of the few places where the family could have complete privacy (well as much privacy as you can have with a full staff around you), and offers an intriguing look into the queen's private and traditional, unfussy British tastes.

I know it's hard to believe, but this simple, old-fashioned looking room was the Queen's private apartment. Yes, that is a single bed that you see there!

The Duke's private apartment also contains a single bed and simple furnishings. (I have to admit that I find it a bit strange that they have separate apartments. I guess this is a British thing? Or maybe a generational thing?)

The Dining Room walls are covered in treasures that the Queen was gifted during her travels. It would take over three hours to set the room for a State Banquet, as each place setting was measured with a ruler!

The drawing room is decorated like a charming country home and was the gathering place on the yacht.

The boat has had many famous guests from all over the world, and was the vessel that took Princess Diana and Prince Charles on their honeymoon. (I would never describe myself as a "royalist", but like a lot of the world, Princess Diana has always fascinated me.)

There is something amazing about walking in the same place that some of history's biggest movers and shakers have walked.

The only room on the boat with a double bed is where Princess Diana and Prince Charles stayed and, more recently, where the Clintons slept while they were guests on the yacht.

The ship's company was made up of an admiral, 20 officers, and 220 yachtsmen who kept the five tons of luggage organized, the Rolls-Royce ready to go, the teak decks scrubbed, and the ship running smoothly!

You can visit all levels of the yacht from the engine room up, and there is even a tea room to enjoy (I didn't hit that up, but I hear that the food is amazing!). For more info on the yacht click here.

I am not usually one to read fiction, but when I am travelling solo I like to have a book that is easy to escape into. My fiction of choice is usually based in history (surprise, surprise), as I like an element of truth and reality in what I am reading.

The Ludwig Conspiracy by Oliver Potzsch was the novel I took with me on my most recent trip to Morocco, and it more than lived up to the history-based fictional escape that I wanted.

Based on legends that have been recorded about the actual King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the book takes you on a journey throughout the King's storied history, actual historic sites, and a Dan Brown-esque thrilling story.

The small bowl, or saucer shaped champagne glass (called a coupe) is often claimed to be modeled on the left breast of the famed French aristocrat Marie Antoinette (1721-1793). Known as the extravagant wife of King Louis XVI, and the women who shouted "let them eat cake" (losing her head soon after), it is said that she had these delicate glasses made so that her courtiers could drink to her health from them.

Though there is no way that she was actually the inventor of this type of glass (champagne was invented in the 17th century and the coupe was created in England in 1663), there is historical evidence that she did have porcelain bowls molded from her breast to drink milk out of.

Even though there is no evidence for it, it isn't too far of a stretch to think that champagne may have been drank out of other breast shaped vessels if milk was... is it?

Ms. Antoinette is not the only famous historical lady that has been rumoured to be the source of some shapely drink ware.

Two of King Louis XV's mistresses (Madame du Pompadour and Madame du Barry) are said to have created glasses from their breasts for the King's lips only. Napoleon's wife, the Empress Josephine is rumoured to have created bosom glassware for her own personal use, while Helen of Troy allegedly allowed Paris to make wax molds of her breasts to turn into coupe's for his own pleasure.

Whether these rumours come from truth, drunken observations, or men's champagne-induced fantasies, is something we may never prove (but that doesn't mean it isn't a fun bit of trivia to share at dinner parties!)

Often considered to be the inspiration for the romanticized, over-sexed spy, and credited with being a key player in the creation of the CIA, Sir William Samuel Stephenson was an inventor, (real-life) master spy, and businessman.

Born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1896, he was a fighter pilot in WWI and was then placed in charge of the British Security Coordination (counterespionage) in the Western Hemisphere, headquartered in New York Cit,y during WWII.

He is most well known for his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid.

During the war (amongst other things) he intercepted coded letters from the enemy, passed secrets between Roosevelt and Churchill, and trained allied agents who were later sent to Nazi-occupied Europe.

He was knighted by King George VI in 1945 and awarded the US Medal for Merit from President Truman (only the second non-American to receive the award at the time), but very little was known about what he did during the war until the publication of The Quiet Canadian, A Man Called Intrepid, and Intrepid's Last Case. Though, the claims made in the books have long been disputed and will probably never be proven (that whole national security thing...).

In 1979 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, and he died at his home in Bermuda on January 31, 1989.

In May 2000, the CIA Executive Director made this statement:

"Sir William Stephenson played a key role in the creation of the CIA. He realized early on that America needed a strong intelligence organization and lobbied contacts close to President Roosevelt to appoint a U.S. "coordinator" to oversee FBI and military intelligence... Although Roosevelt didn't establish exactly what Sir William had in mind, the organization created represented a revolutionary step in the history of American intelligence. Intrepid may not have technically been the father of CIA, but he's certainly in our lineage someplace."

Like most big cities, the one that I live in used to have an efficient and elaborate street-car system that was dismantled long before I ever came along, and the streets were overtaken by cars.

The hot conversation now however, is how to expand and create more efficient public transit options (like extending the light rail transit services) so that people have to use their vehicles less.

If only we hadn't dismantled those streetcars. Which raises the question — why were they dismantled in the first place?

A streetcar in San Francisco, California

Some say that as vehicles became more popular, people chose to drive directly to their destination rather then cramming into a sweaty streetcar and being dropped only "nearby". Other's claim that busses were cheaper to run because no additional track was required to reach the ever-growing suburbs.

Another theory however, and one that has been explored over and over again by scholars, researchers, journalists and conspiracy theorists, is that General Motors (GM) and other car companies conspired to systematically purchase and dismantle streetcar and electric train systems.

Known as the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy or the Great American Streetcar Scandal, this theory examines the actions of National City Lines and Pacific City Lines (both invested in by GM, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, Mack Trucks and the Federal Engineering Corporation) from 1936-1950. During this time, the two companies purchased more than 100 electric surface-traction systems in 45 major cities and converted them into bus operations.

Some theorists claim that this was a business strategy created by GM to expand auto sales and maximize profits — rather than walk, people would buy Buicks.

"In 1921, GM lost $65 million, leading {GM} to conclude that the auto market was saturated, that those who desired cars already owned them, and that the only way to increase GM's sales and restore its profitability was by eliminating its principal rival: electric railways.

At the time, 90 percent of all trips were by rail, chiefly electric rail; only one in 10 Americans owned an automobile. There were 1,200 separate electric street and interurban railways, a thriving and profitable industry with 44,000 miles of track, 300,000 employees, 15 billion annual passengers, and $1 billion in income. Virtually every city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system." (source)

Sensationalized in movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, sources claim that this competition was reduced through the use of bribery, freight leverage and a pack of notorious mobsters.

In 1949, many of the companies involved were convicted of conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce, but many still don't believe that an actual back-room, behind closed doors conspiracy actually took place amongst these powerful companies.

No matter what you believe, there is no denying that North Americans live a life of automobile dependency, and the hearts of many of the largest cities on the continent are completely devoid of life after the workday because of a lack of reliable public transit.

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